


How Deep Is The Red?

by rowenablade



Series: MCU Kink Bingo Fills [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alcohol, Comfort, F/F, Femslash, Fluff, Hot Tub, Kissing, Light Angst, Making Out, Pampering, Tenderness, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-20
Updated: 2020-08-20
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:34:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26005777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rowenablade/pseuds/rowenablade
Summary: “Are you sure this is allowed?” Wanda whispered.“Why wouldn’t it be?” Natasha shrugged. She had a bottle of vodka in one hand, fresh from the freezer, so cold it burned her skin, and two shot glasses in the other.Wanda replied with a shy smile. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “Just, with the alcohol, and us in our pajamas, it feels like we’re sneaking around, does it not?”“We’re not sneaking. We’re just…being quiet.”
Relationships: Wanda Maximoff/Natasha Romanov
Series: MCU Kink Bingo Fills [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1887520
Comments: 7
Kudos: 146
Collections: MCU Kink Bingo Round 5





	How Deep Is The Red?

**Author's Note:**

> First time participating in a bingo challenge AND my first ever published femslash. Did not expect to kick things off with something so soft, but there you go.

During her first tour of the new Avengers compound, Natasha had been able to resist rolling her eyes at a lot of things. Tony had better taste than a lot of the rich man-children she had met over her long career, so she could put up with some of the more Starkian decorating foibles most of the time. Tony’s need to hide a wet bar in every compartment large enough to hold one and his new project of programming the house to play specifically curated “entrance music” every time someone arrived in the common room might have been annoying, but it was worth it for the compound’s many benefits.

For example, the baths.

At first, Natasha had put the hot tubs attached to the gym under the “eye roll” category. Old playboy habits died hard, she figured, and didn’t care how many groupies Tony crammed in there as long as it didn’t interfere with her workouts. But wild, steam-fueled orgies failed to occur week after week, and eventually Natasha accepted that the baths were there for the reason Tony had given; for relaxation, rejuvenation, healing. Somewhere to go if your bones ached from a long day of beating up bad guys. Or if your brain ached, from a long night of beating up yourself.

Natasha was a bit sore. She’d been training with some big guns on the range today and the repeated kicks of recoil had her shoulder humming faintly, an electric buzz that promised to turn to full-on pain by morning. But that wasn’t why she was letting herself into the baths now, at three AM, turning on the largest tub, letting the jets fill the low, wood-paneled room with a dull, burbling roar. No, the reason was hovering in the doorway, wearing an oversized tee-shirt that fell to her knees, bare toes curling and uncurling on the floor. Wanda looked at Natasha with those huge, soft, baby-seal eyes and knotted her hands together nervously.

“Are you sure this is allowed?” she whispered.

“Why wouldn’t it be?” Natasha shrugged. She had a bottle of vodka in one hand, fresh from the freezer, so cold it burned her skin, and two shot glasses in the other.

Wanda replied with a shy smile. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “Just, with the alcohol, and us in our pajamas, it feels like we’re sneaking around, does it not?”

“We’re not sneaking. We’re just…being quiet.” Natasha tested the water with her hand before slipping off the frayed workout pants and tank top she’d been sleeping in. Wanda’s smile perked up at the sight of Natasha in just her panties, and Natasha winked at her before ducking her head under the water. When she came up, Wanda had already shed the tee-shirt and climbed into the tub as well. She sat in the middle with the water up to her chin, her hair floating around her like sea-snakes. 

The steam wafted up between them, turning their skin pink and curling the ends of Natasha’s coppery tresses. Natasha poured two shots of vodka, handed one off to Wanda and sank the other. It was shockingly cold, traveling down her throat to spread its icy bloom in her chest. 

She didn’t normally drink much, and hardly ever touched vodka. Too many bad memories. But something about Wanda made her crave its brutal bite no matter how much the smell of it reminded her of the people who’d raised her. Wanda would tell Natasha about her nightmares in her frostily-accented English, and it would awaken some part of Natasha that associated the word _comfort_ with cold vodka, hot soup, broad-knuckled hands fastening up the buttons of her coat, one by one. Sense memories from before she had the words to go with them. 

The fact that Wanda had nightmares didn’t set her apart. Everyone on the team had nightmares, Natasha guessed, and it was an unspoken house rule that you let people deal with them in their own way. More than once she’d had a restless night of her own and passed Steve on the way into the gym, or caught Tony raiding the fridge, or sat on the common room sofa with Sam while he quietly mangled some dog-eared paperback. Avengers didn’t sleep easy, and chances were if you wandered the halls at night you wouldn’t do it alone for very long.

But throw a telepath into the mix, and things got a little bit more complicated.

So far, no one had the nerve to ask Wanda if she was the reason they all seemed to be sleeping worse these days. She was already working herself into exhaustion trying to hone and control her powers; the emotional stress of knowing her progress, or lack thereof, might be affecting everyone around her would only make things worse. And no one was comfortable with the idea, that Wanda could see their nightmares, that she might be dreaming alongside them, watching all their fears and insecurities play out like a movie she couldn’t turn off.

No, no one wanted to talk about it. Least of all Natasha, knowing that Wanda had already been inside her mind once. 

The smart thing would have been to avoid her, close the door on her soft eyes and shy smile and seek distraction elsewhere. They had to work together. And they both had wounds so fresh. Bruce. Pietro. But all the reasons this was a bad idea were the same reasons that made Natasha want to pull this girl into her arms and shut the world out.

Just for a little while. Just until they could both get by on their own again.

Wanda mimicked Natasha in knocking back her drink almost perfectly; only after she had swallowed did she grimace in a way that Natasha had long since trained herself out of. Her delicate cheeks flushed, and Natasha felt the world recede a little bit more.

She leaned back against the edge of the tub and stretched out her arms.

“Come here,” she purred.

Wanda drifted over to her, settling with her back against Natasha’s chest. As always, Natasha had to quiet the instinct that told her to treat the other woman’s body like a puzzle, something to be taken apart and manipulated. Her training would always be a part of her, but she could put it aside long enough to wrap her arms around Wanda’s elegant figure, rub her nose against the silky crown of her head. She could. She was a person, not a weapon. She could provide comfort instead of pain.

“Do you want to talk about it?” she asked quietly.

“I think I would like to talk about anything else,” Wanda confessed, nuzzling up under Natasha’s chin. 

Natasha smiled. “Okay.” She started to play with Wanda’s hair, letting the luxuriously long strands slide through her fingers as she tried to think of something to talk about. Something that wouldn’t remind Wanda of crumbling cities or dead brothers or sterile laboratories or whatever else chased her out of sleep and into Natasha’s room.

It wasn’t easy. Natasha could make conversation undercover, but when she was actually herself she was used to talking about work, or not talking much at all.

“Well,” she began, “what are we having for Team Dinner tomorrow? It’s your turn to pick.”

Team Dinner was a weekly tradition that Steve had implemented to encourage camaraderie. Every week someone else got a turn to select the menu, and tomorrow would be the first time the rotation came around to Wanda. Last week Steve had brought in Thai food, and next week was supposed to be Vision’s turn. Everyone was curious how that was going to turn out.

Wanda frowned. “I still don’t know,” she answered, twisting around a bit to look at Natasha. “What do you think everyone would like?”

“What would _you_ like?” Natasha countered. 

“There’s still so much I’ve not tried.” Wanda untangled herself to pour another two shots of vodka, then relaxed again into Natasha’s arms. She took ladylike sips of the drink instead of knocking it back this time. “I suppose I could have the kitchen prepare something Sokovian. But perhaps it would be too difficult to find the ingredients around here.”

“I’m pretty sure the A.I. Tony set up can send drones out for ingredients from basically anywhere.”

“It’s not just that, though,” Wanda sighed. “Sometimes I want to be reminded of home, but other times it’s too much. You know?”

“I know.”

They kissed, soft and hesitant. Natasha thought that Wanda’s lips tasted faintly electric with power, but that was most likely her imagination, combined with the leftover burn of alcohol. They were still new at this, kissing, figuring out the push and pull of each other’s lips and teeth and breath. It was sweet and simple and blew every thought out of Natasha’s head, just as she’d been hoping it would.

“Is this too much?” she asked after a few minutes had passed, during which Wanda had shifted around to sitting on Natasha’s lap and the temperature in the room seemed to have increased by at least ten degrees.

Wanda shook her head. “Not for me, _malyshka_ ,” she whispered. “But for you? You’re shaking.”

“I’m not,” Natasha replied immediately. Of course this wasn’t too much for her. She’d built a livelihood, an identity, on not becoming overwhelmed. A little making out wasn’t going to rattle her.

“ _Lisichka_ ,” Wanda crooned, burying her hands in Natasha’s hair. “You know I would never look in your mind on purpose, never again, but some things I can’t help but see.”

“I’m fine.” Natasha leaned forward, snatched another kiss with her teeth, squeezed Wanda’s hips a little tighter. “Just a little tipsy.”

Their eyes met, blurred by the steam, and Natasha realized with a sort of exasperation that she could not lie to this girl. To try was almost insulting in its futility.

“I like you,” Natasha said, brushing her fingers over Wanda’s cheekbone. “I…I’m a little scared to like someone, right now.”

Wanda smiled. “I like you too.” She gave Natasha another lingering kiss, then slid off her lap to sit next to her. Wanda’s resting on Natasha’s shoulder, the two of them stayed like that until the heat began to make them both dizzy, holding hands beneath the water.

“I think I would like chocolate, tomorrow,” Wanda finally said.

Natasha laughed. “Just chocolate?”

“Yes.” There was a flash of mischief in Wanda’s smile, then, one that made her look like her lost brother. “Dessert for dinner.”

“Fury won’t like that,” she teased. “I’m pretty sure he expects Earth’s mightiest heroes to eat healthy.”

“I can’t help it.” Wanda looked up into Natasha’s eyes. “I can only think of sweet things.”

Natasha’s stomach fluttered. She couldn’t think of anything to say.

A tiny line appeared between Wanda’s brows. “If you think it is not a good idea…” 

“Hey.” The heartbreaking thought of Wanda apologizing for such an innocent request was enough to make Natasha find her voice again. “It’s a _great_ idea. We’ll ask the kitchen A.I. to make every dessert it knows. So what if the guys laugh?”

“Yes,” Wanda agreed. “It is not the worst thing, to be laughed at. It’s nice to hear laughter again.”

 _Oh my God, I like her so much._ Natasha thought. _I’m going to stock the kitchen with the most expensive chocolate I can find._

Out loud, she said, “Do you want to try sleeping again? You can stay in my room, if you want.”

Wanda nodded. “Yes. Thank you. And thank you for this. I feel much better.”

Natasha thought of her own nightmares that Wanda had woken her up from, and found she couldn’t recall any of the details. They were gone, and just for this moment Natasha could believe that they might never come back.

She squeezed Wanda closer and kissed her temple.

“That makes two of us.”


End file.
